STEP 1: CHOOSING A TOPIC

Considerations:

1. Interest

2. Manageability
1. Length of the research paper
2. Duration of research paper project c. Availability of research sources
3. Reliability of resources

*Refer to the worksheet

3. Avoid topics that are subjective and can be researched using just one or two references.
Ex: Eic Proy is the best President the Philippines has ever had.
How are dictionaries made?

STEP 2: NARROWING THE TOPIC

"There is more leaming in the question itself than the answer."- Andrew Wererny

Important Notes:
● Depth of treatment rather than scope of coverage is the desirable goal here; to achieve
this, narrow your topic in such a way that you can make significant, NOT merely
superficial statements about the topic within the prescribed number of pages.

● Topics that are too broad present problems because you will find that there is too much
information out there, and you may literally find yourself drowning in the sea of facts and
data.

The table below demonstrates how general topics can be narrowed down.

General Topic of Interest Narrowed Down Topic Narrowed Down Further

Philippine Music Contemporary Philippine Pinoy Rock

 Music

Tourism Philippine Tourism The Balikbayan Program

Philippine Humor The Philippine Comic Strip Pol Medina Jr.'s Pugad
Baboy

Leonardo da Vinci Da Vinci's Engineering Da Vinci's Aeronautic

Genius Experiments

Darwin's Theory of Evolution The Search for the Missing The Piltdown Hoax
Link

The Middle East Conflict Arab-Israel Hostilities Wingate's Readers: The

Nucleus of Israel National
Army

Overseas Contract Workers Women OCWS Japayukis

(OCWS)

Philippine Cinema Social Realism in Philippine Social Realist Strands in the

Films of

Popular TV Shows Cinema Noontime Variety Lino Brocka Noontime Shows

Shows as Agents of Dehumanization

Philippine Myth Aswang and the Filipino Use of Myths as a Means of

Psyche Establishing Social Control

Environment Water Pollution The Pasig River Rehabilitation

Project

New Age Medicine Aromatherapy Using Aromatherapy as

Alternative Stress Reliever

Psychology The Power of Suggestion Placebo Effect

Communes Kibbutz Experience Effect of Kibbutz Experienice

on Child Rearing

Social Network

Depression

Parenting
Ways to Narrow Down Your Topic
● Webbing Read around your topic
● Ask questions about your topic
● Find the Focusing Question
● The "So what" test: Establishing a purpose for your topic
● Developing subordinate questions

STEP 3: WRITING THE THESIS STATEMENT

What a THESIS IS:

● It is a claim (not a fact) that can be supported by a reason or reasons (can be argued);
It directly answers the question of the assignment;
● It is a statement that unifies the paper by stating the writer's most important or significant
point
● regarding the topic,
● It is usually one sentence that does not discuss many topics, It forecasts the content and
order of the essay; and
● It is placed most often at the beginning of the essay, preferably towards the end of the
introduction, but at least within the first or second paragraph.

EXAMPLE

Playing sports is beneficial for children because it helps them develop better cooperation skills,
better coordination, and better overall health.

Notice that it has the three major elements of a thesis statement:

1) A subject: playing sports
2) A main idea: playing sports is beneficial for children.
3) Support or Evidence: better cooperation, better coordination, and better overall
health.

Thesis Statement Example 1

● Wrong: "Electric cars are better vehicles because they have benefits. "[This is a wrong
formulation of a thesis statement because it does not compare electric cars to another
type of vehicle in terms of benefits.]
 ● Correct: "Electric cars provide a viable alternative to gasoline-fueled cars because the
benefits outweigh the costs."

Thesis Statement Example 2

● Wrong: "Smoking should be prohibited." [This thesis statement is too vague or ambiguous
apart from being too short. It does not really argue for or against any specific point.]
● Correct: "There should be an absolute ban against smoking in public because
secondhand smoke endangers the health of non-smokers."

Thesis Statement Example 3

● Wrong: "I will argue in this essay that same-sex couples can marry because it is their right."
[This thesis statement is unclear. It is not really disputed that same-sex couples can marry
because they really can, only that they can marry a person of the opposite sex. Note the
correct way of writing the thesis statement in the next sentence.]
● Correct: "Same-sex marriage should be allowed because homosexual couples are also
citizens with fundamental rights like heterosexual spouses."

Some more samples for you to model your TS from:

1. Importance of Breakfast: A healthy breakfast is said to be an important meal of the day
because it gives the person all the essential nutrients that the body requires and also
helps in facing the challenges of the day.
2. Obesity in Children: As children love to indulge in fast foods and spend their time in front
of the television or by playing video games, obesity in children has become a common
health problem.
3. Sex Education in Schools: Introducing sex education in middle school is very important as
many cases of teenage pregnancy have been reported in the past few years.
4. School Examinations: Though people argue that examinations cause too much of stress
and tension in students, they are important in evaluating the student's knowledge.
5. Beating children brutalizes parents, damages the parent-child relationship, and is
completely unnecessary.
6. "Heart-healthy eating should be implemented in preschools because teaching healthy
eating early on can reduce risk of heart disease."
7. Educating teenagers about a healthy body image is imperative in the prevention of
eating disorders and body-altering surgery.
8. Obesity can be resolved when Americans choose to change their unhealthy eating
habits and start exercise routines.
9. School lunches must be made affordable and nutritious for the benefit of children's
health.
 10. In order to diminish the growing trend in needless cosmetic plastic surgery, the public
must be educated on the negative consequences and discouraged to alter their
bodies.

HOW TO MAKE & THESIS STATEMENT

7 General Rules/Principles in Formulating TS

1. A thesis statement makes assertion: It is not a simple statement or observation.

● Fact or observation: More people are attending community colleges
● Thesis: Community colleges are attracting more students because they otter job training
programs as well as academic courses of study.

2. A thesis takes a stand: It does NOT make an announcement.

● Announcement: The thesis of this paper is the difficulty of solving the environmental
problems of the Indian River Lagoon.
● Thesis: Solving the environmental problems of the Indian River Lagoon will prove more
difficult than many people believe.

3. A thesis is a main idea, not a title (Fragment).

● Title: The effect of the internet on society.
● Thesis: Continuing advances in the Internet are having a great impact upon
communication in modern society.

4. A thesis statement narrows the topic.

● Narrow: The primary problem facing the American automobile industry is competition
from foreign auto makers.
● Broad: The American automobile Industry has many problems

5. A thesis statement is specific.

● Vague: John D. MacDonald's stories are very good.
● Specific: John D. MacDonald's stories advanced the thriller genre by employing
intelligent dialogue, introducing environmental and economic concerns, and delving
into moral issues.
6. A thesis statement is NOT a statement of fact or statistic.
● Statistic: Experts estimate that hall of elementary school children consumes nine times the
recommended daily allowance of sugar.
○ NOTE: This statement is specific, but it isn't a thesis. It merely reports a statistic
instead of making an assertion. Make an assertion based on clearly stated
support.
● Thesis Statement: Because half of all American elementary school children consume nine
times the recommended daily allowance of sugar, schools should be required to replace
the beverages in soda machines with healthy alternatives.

7. A thesis statement must NOT be a question, command, or a definition.

● Question: "Should The concept of global warming receive the amount of attention that is
currently gaining today?"
● Command: "Fight global warming"
● Definition: " Global warming is the rise in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere
and oceans since the late 19th century and its projected continuation."
● Thesis: The concept of global warming should not receive the amount of attention that is
currently focused on this issue because the earth constantly goes through spells of
warming and cooling: the increasing temperature of the earth is but a part of this natural
cycle and out of human control.

EXERCISE 1: Evaluate whether the following thesis statements are acceptable or not. If they are
acceptable, write A; If not, write the principle it violated. Write your answers on the lines below
the Items. Write your answers in the worksheet provided. (10 points)

1. Computers have changed our society.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

2.The subject of this paper is alcoholism

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
3. There are three important steps we could take to deal with the problem of drug addiction in
this country.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

4. Celebrities lead very stressful lives, for no matter how glamorous or powerful they are, they
have too little privacy, too much pressure, and no safety.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

5. Since politicians are constantly bombarding each other, how do they expect anyone to know
who is right and who is wrong?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________

21st CENTURY SOCIAL ISSUES: CREATING AWARENESS, ENCOURAGING INVOLVEMENT, AND

FINDING SOLUTIONS
 STEP 1: CHOOSING A TOPIC

ACTIVITY 1: Brainstorm ten (10) topics related to the theme.

1. Corruption

2. Inequality

3. Misogyny

4. Racial injustice

5. Drug Abuse

6. Pollution

7. Human trafficking

8. Unemployment

9. World hunger

10. Lack of education

ACTIVITY 2: As a group, choose your top three topics and write them in the table below.

ACTIVITY 3: Find the possible references (books, newspaper clippings, magazines, research
journals) in the library and even online. Complete the table below.

TOPIC 1: Racial Injustice

Title of the Author and Year of Website/s

book/periodic/article Publication

Stanley, J. et al 2019 https://

bmcpublichealth.biomedce
The Impact of Racism on the ntral.com/articles/10.1186/
Future Health of Adults: s12889-019-6664-x
Protocol for a Prospective
Cohort Study

Systematic Racism: Banaji, M., Fiske, S., Massey, https://

Individuals and Interactions, D. 2021 cognitiveresearchjournal.spr
Institutional and Society ingeropen.com/articles/
10.1186/s41235-021-00349-3

What are the Effects of Lewsley, J., Slater, R. 2023 https://

Racism on Health and www.medicalnewstoday.co
Mental Health m/articles/effects-of-racism

Harmful Psychological Morin, A., LCSW 2024 https://

Effects of Racial www.verywellmind.com/
Stereotyping harmful-psychological-
effects-of-racial-
stereotyping-5069394

The Environment That Frederick, R. 2018 https://

Racism Built www.americanprogress.org
/article/environment-
racism-built/

TOPIC 2: Corruption

Title of the Title of the Title of the

book/periodic/article book/periodic/article book/periodic/article

How Corruption Affects Mirzayev, E. (2023) https://

Emerging Economics www.investopedia.com/
articles/investing/012215/
how-corruption-affects-
emerging-economies.asp

Global Corruption Fight Jazeera, A. (2024) https://

Faltering as Rule of Law www.aljazeera.com/amp/
Declines: Watchdog news/2024/1/30/anti-
corruption-efforts-failing-
amid-decline-in-rule-of-
law-watchdog?
fbclid=IwAR2hX0xY2_Qtej2R
W7t9QIiz-
F13mJalxrQ9vpKTXnFlclB259
TtIZrvO78

Corruption, Causes and Šumah, Š. (2018) https://

Consequences www.intechopen.com/
chapters/58969

TOPIC 3: Inequality

Title of the Title of the Title of the

book/periodic/article book/periodic/article book/periodic/article

Overcoming Social Klusener, E. (2018) https://

Problems: Inequality Vs sites.manchester.ac.uk/
Poverty global-social-challenges/
2018/04/17/overcoming-
social-problems-inequality-
vs-poverty/

The Effects of Gender King’s College London https://www.kcl.ac.uk/

Inequality Across The World (2021) news/the-effects-of-gender-
inequality-across-the-world

Economic Inequality by Ortiz-Ospina, E., Hasell, J., & https://ourworldindata.org/

Gender Roser, M. (2024) economic-inequality-by-
gender?ref=cold-takes.com

Inflation Inequality: Jaravel, X. (2021) https://

Measurement, Causes, and www.annualreviews.org/
Policy Implications doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-
economics-091520-082042
ACTIVITY 3: Arriving at the FINAL GENERAL TOPIC. Rate your topics based on the criteria below to
arrive at the final focus of your research.

TOPIC INTEREST/ RESEARCHABILITY PRACTICALITY TOTAL RANK

APPEAL (availability of
references) (can be finished in
two mouths)

4 - can be finished
4 - at least five before the
4 - very references are found deadline
appealing to
both the
researchers and
the readers 3 - three to four 3 - can be finished
references are found on the deadline
3 - appealing to
both 2 - two references are 2 - may not be
found passed on the
2 - may be deadline
appealing to 1- no or one
one but not to reference is found 1- surely to finish 1
the other week after the
deadline
1- not so
appealing to
both

1. Racial 2 4 4 10 3
Injustice

2. 3 4 4 11 2
Corruption

3. Inequality 4 4 4 12 1

B. REFERENCES
 TITLE OF AUTHOR DATE OF PUBLICATION WEBSITE/S
BOOK/ARTICLE

1. Overcoming Social Klusener, E. 2018 https://

Problems: Inequality sites.manchester.
Vs Poverty ac.uk/global-
social-
challenges/
2018/04/17/
overcoming-
social-problems-
inequality-vs-
poverty/

2. The Effects of King’s College 2021 https://

Gender Inequality London www.kcl.ac.uk/
Across The World news/the-effects-
of-gender-
inequality-across-
the-world

3. Inflation Inequality: Jaravel, X. 2021 https://

Measurement, www.annualrevie
Causes, and Policy ws.org/doi/abs/
Implications 10.1146/annurev-
economics-
091520-082042

4. Economic Ortiz-Ospina, E., 2024 https://

Inequality by Gender Hasell, J., & Roser, ourworldindata.or
M. g/economic-
inequality-by-
gender?ref=cold-
takes.com

5. The Role of Youth in PL Jamatia 2023 https://

Combating Social www.academia.e
Inequality: du/download/
Empowering the Next 104737481/165.pd
Generation f

6.
https://www.annual https://cyberleninka.r
 reviews.org/doi/abs u/article/n/corruption
/10.1146/annurev- -its-historical-roots-
environ-012320- and-ways-to-combat-
083949 it

C. TOPIC PROPOSAL

GENERAL TOPIC: Inequality

NARROWED DOWN TOPIC: Gender Inequality

NARROWED DOWN FURTHER: The causes and harmful consequences of gender inequality in the
modern-day Filipino society.

RATIONALE:

This briefly presents the main topic proposal of the research report. Additionally, it
discusses the scope and problem of the main topic regarding gender inequality.

During the Philippine president's first three years in power, feminist rallies expressed
immense opposition to his leadership and the system of patriarchy which reinforces it. People
across the country demand accountability for the president's sexist and misogynistic statements
and acts, demonstrating their solidarity with the people.

Women from various socioeconomic backgrounds, ideological positions, religious

affiliations, and occupational groups make up the dynamic women's movements in the
Philippines, and they have made significant contributions to the Philippine and Asia's social,
political, and economic developments. Filipino women have collaborated with others to
participate in promoting change at the micro level and macro levels along with national and
international efforts in social policy.

Male supremacy persists despite women's numerous duties, resulting in current gender
identities that are both global and local. The gender imbalance, especially in the economic and
political realms, is alarming. If attaining gender equality remains a difficulty even in commended
nations such as the Philippines, how much more so in over a hundred lower-ranked countries?